Drying off after the hot tub, I leaned over and quietly asked Ella, “What exactly is a manicure and pedicure?”

“You really are a boy,” she whispered, her smile taking any potential sting out of her words. “They're going to clean, massage, and colour our hands, feet, and nails. It feels really nice, just relax and go with it.”

That didn't sound so bad. I'd already had my fingernails painted a few times and while it looked weird to me, it hadn't felt annoying, unlike the makeup. That was one benefit of having fur, Clarice and Naomi hadn't insisted I put on eyeliner, or lipstick, or foundation and blush since becoming a catgirl.

Putting on a pristine white housecoat that was made from Elven spider silk and sandals, we made our way to the next room. Six attendants greeted us, and apparently they'd already decided how we were going to be paired off. While Ella, Clarice, and Naomi each got a beautiful human or elf, Ivy had a large orc woman with vivid black and gold tattoos covering her green skin. Calci was directed to a chair by a fellow Dwarf, who had an elaborately braided red beard that reached her very shapely hips.

Finally it was a clockwork folk and myself. This one didn't look anything like Professor Pyrotechny, who was always covered in stains and half melted parts. Their metal body was more feminine looking, with brilliantly polished silver, gold, copper and steel, their eyes looked like blue emeralds, and the ticking of it's gears was much softer.

We were seated in comfortable chairs and our feet were put into bowls full of slime. I jerked my feet away, remembering having my hair and scalp burned by the acidic slime in the survive or die test a week ago.

“Don't worry,” the clockwork folk said.  “This slime is specially bred, it will only digest dirt and dead skin. When we're done your feet will feel clean and soft.”

“OK,” I said. Very slowly and gently, I put my toes into the clear slime. It felt like jello, and it moved upwards covering my feet. It didn't hurt, but it did tingle weirdly. Looking at my friends, Ella was taking it in stride, the others were as cautious as I was.

Ivy started to growl, her teeth growing into fangs. Her Orc attendant just smirked, and asked, “Scared, little wolf?”

The werewolf's glare made me cringe in fear. But after a moment she plunged her feet into the slime, defiantly looking at the Orc. The woman just smiled, which revealed her sharp, bronze colour teeth.

Smaller bowls with more slime were put on the wide chair arms, and while I was still nervous, I put my fingers into them with only a little hesitation. It was just like my feet, the back of my hands and fingers which were covered in fur didn't really feel anything except faintly warm slime. But my bare palms tingled from the slime getting into the cracks, lines and pores of my skin.

With that done my clockwork attendant leaned the chair back. Glancing over I saw everyone else was in the same position, their attendants were mixing bowls of powder and elixirs together. I didn't get a chance to see anything else as my head was shifted to look straight up and two cool green crystals covered my eyes.

“This will hydrate your eyes, making them look fresh and full of energy,” the clockwork attendant said.

“OK,” I said, a little worried that I couldn't see anything.

I heard Naomi yelp. Before I could ask her what was going on, I made my own little squeak of surprise. Flowery smelling oil was being rubbed onto my furry cheeks. “Relax. This oil is specially made for fur.  It will revitalize it, making it shine.”

It did feel kind of nice, so I settled down and let her do her job.

As we were getting pampered, Naomi, Clarice and Calci started talking about their boyfriends. Ivy began snoring. Ella and I sat in silence, I didn't want to talk about my love life, which was very complicated even though I didn't have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend. What happened with Rocky and I the other day did not count. And Ella never talked about stuff like that.

Leaning back in the comfy chair, getting my face, then my hands, and finally my feet massaged with oil, listening to my friends and the soft music playing in the background, with the cool stones over my eyes, I had to admit I felt pretty good. I could see why my Mom liked the spa. I had to wonder why men didn't do it too.

Before I knew it, the stones were taken from my eyes, the excess oil was wiped from my fur, and the chair was put back up. Looking down I saw that my claws on my hands and feet were painted a stunning, glittery red colour. When I moved my fingers they looked like shiny dragon scales. Then I saw my reflection and realized the fur on my face was really shiny, instead of the dull black it had been that morning.

I'd never really had anything for cat girls, they were nice enough to look at, but the claws and fur were kind of off putting. Seeing myself in the mirror, I realized why some humans liked the look. I was hot. My brain and libido were once again tossed into confusion, as my mental image of myself ran headfirst into the wall of reality. Before I got a headache, I looked away from the mirror, trying to distract myself.

The girls were all done as well, admiring their own nails, which looked really nice. Even Ivy was looking appreciatively at her blood red nails which had been sharpened into points. Calci was looking in the mirror at her her short, emerald green beard, it had been curled and oiled, which looked good with her chubby, red cheeks. And Ella looked fantastic. Her nails were silver that glittered in the light, and her dark skin glowed more than usual. Even her eyes seemed bigger.

“Time for the massage, girls,” Ella said, after we'd had long enough to admire our new looks.

We were led to the next room where the attendants took our housecoats and made us climb onto the massage beds. Feeling very self-conscious I laid there naked, with my tail covering my butt. Then I felt oily, metal hands digging into my back, and after a moment of pain, my muscles turned to water. Really comfortable, relaxed, water, that made me sigh in relief as knots and cramps I didn't realize I'd had disappeared.

“You are very tense, Petra,” the clockwork attendant said. “You need to learn to relax.”

“Mmmm.... It's kind of hard to relax here,” I mumbled.

“If you come here once a week, we'll make sure you end the week calm and free of stress. It will help with your school work.”

“I'm not sure I can afford that.”

“We're coming back,” Ella said. “My treat. This is too good to ignore.”

“I guess I'll be here next week.” Any further conversation was cut off as we moaned and groaned in pleasure.

Leaving the spa, the morning was over and there were more students wandering around. Normally I would have been worried, but I was feeling way too good. Every muscle was relaxed, my skin was still pleasantly tingly. Even my bones felt good from soaking in the hot spring.

“So where to next?” Naomi asked.

“Hair or food?” Ella asked.

“Hair!”

Naomi's enthusiastic cry was greeted with nods and agreement from the others. Even Ivy looked interested in the idea. I was less certain, but remembering my promise to be more enthusiastic I nodded along. I wasn't that hungry yet anyways.

Going up another level there was a barbershop on one side and a much larger hair salon on the other. Entering the salon I sneezed at the smell of shampoos, dyes, conditioners, and other things I had never had to worry about when I had short hair.

Even though the hair on my head was still short, and technically fur rather than hair, knowing my friends they'd insist I get something fancy done with it. It was easier when I was a boy and could just smooth my hair with my hands and maybe a bit of water, and call it a day.

While I was distracted looking around at all the equipment, sinks, chairs with weird crystals and runes on them, and the hundreds of oils, potions and elixirs that lined the walls, Ella got everything set up. Once again we each got paired with a stylist, in my case it was a chimera, who looked like she was half weasel going by her ears, nose and the fur that replaced her hair.

“Oh my, aren't you so pretty. We don't have nearly enough people with fur in here,” she said. “Too many girls think that just because they have fur they don't need to worry about styling, but it's nice to change things up sometimes, especially when you have such beautiful fur.”

“Uh, yeah,” I said.

“I'm Trixie, and don't worry, I'm an expert when it comes to fur. Your friend said to make you look and feel extra special, so I'm thinking we'll lengthen your fur. Then I can give you a nice pixie cut, straighten it to let your ears show, and dye it white which will be a great contrast to your black fur. How does that sound?”

Pixie cut? Contrast? Straightening? I was lost. “I'm in your hands!” I replied, forcing myself to smile.

My stylist didn't quite squeal. I would have face palmed at her enthusiasm which probably spelled very bad things for me, but I was still a bit too relaxed to do that. With a growing fear, I let myself be led to a chair, while Trixie kept talking.

An hour later we were all done.

Once again my eyes went to Ella, who had her short hair lengthened to halfway down her back. It was braided in cornrows with jewelled beads on the ends. She was definitely one of the cutest girls I'd ever seen. Naomi had her pink hair streaked with purple, and it looked a lot bouncier then before. Ivy had her straight black hair styled so it flared out almost like a mane.

Clarice couldn't stop playing with her curly blonde hair. “Do you think Gold will like this?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. It really did look good on her.

Calci's emerald green hair was in two massive braids that hung over her shoulders. The braids had silver and gold threads wrapped around them, holding them together and making them look really nice in the light.

And then there was me. My head fur now hung to just above my shoulders, cut so it perfectly framed my face, and it was pure white. I thought it looked odd against my black fur, but everyone oohed and aah-ed, when they saw it. Looking around I noticed some boys coming out of the barbershop giving me admiring looks.

I wanted to sink into the floor and disappear. I was not supposed to be the prettiest girl in the group!

I wasn't supposed to be a girl at all.

Forcing myself to keep smiling, I followed my friends as we headed for lunch at a different restaurant. Maybe food would make me feel better.

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Doom Valley Prep School will be updated every Monday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned will be updated every Tuesday.

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